https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...n-fifth-acid-attack-despite-police-protection
Indian woman in fifth acid attack despite police protection
Assailant scaled walls of women’s hostel in Uttar Pradesh and poured chemical on to 35-year-old mother, say police
Agence France-Presse
Sunday 2 July 2017 13.43 EDT
Laxmi, 28, a campaigner for Stop Acid Attacks. She survived an acid assault in India when she was 15 years old. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian
A woman who survived an alleged gang rape and four separate acid attacks has again had corrosive liquid poured over her, Indian police said on Sunday.
The 35-year-old mother was at a women’s hostel in Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow when a man scaled the walls and poured the chemical on to her. “She was filling water at the hand pump when the attack took place. The attacker fled from the spot,” said Vivek Tripathi, a local police chief.
Due to the previous string of attacks the woman was under round-the-clock police protection, but the armed policeman was barred from entering the women’s hostel.
Police have launched a manhunt to identify the assailant, the officer said.
The woman was allegedly gang-raped and attacked with acid by two men in 2008 over a property dispute, and subsequently attacked twice more by the same men, in 2012 and 2013, who wanted to force her to withdraw the criminal cases against them.
Most recently, she was allegedly forced her to drink acid while she was travelling on a train with one of her daughters in March.
The two men are facing trials over the attacks, but they were released on bail in April.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sustained burn injuries to her face and shoulder and is now being treated in hospital.
In India about 300 acid attacks were reported in the country during 2015, according to official figures. Experts said, however, that this represented the tip of the iceberg.
In 2013 India brought in stringent laws to deal with acid attacks, following public outcry over the plight of hundreds of survivors coping with lifelong scars and even social stigma. The country’s top court banned the sale of acid to the public in that year to curb attacks. But assaults have largely continued unabated.
Most attacks are carried out by men taking revenge for spurned marriage proposals, or are linked to property disputes.
Indian woman in fifth acid attack despite police protection
Assailant scaled walls of women’s hostel in Uttar Pradesh and poured chemical on to 35-year-old mother, say police
Agence France-Presse
Sunday 2 July 2017 13.43 EDT
Laxmi, 28, a campaigner for Stop Acid Attacks. She survived an acid assault in India when she was 15 years old. Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian
A woman who survived an alleged gang rape and four separate acid attacks has again had corrosive liquid poured over her, Indian police said on Sunday.
The 35-year-old mother was at a women’s hostel in Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow when a man scaled the walls and poured the chemical on to her. “She was filling water at the hand pump when the attack took place. The attacker fled from the spot,” said Vivek Tripathi, a local police chief.
Due to the previous string of attacks the woman was under round-the-clock police protection, but the armed policeman was barred from entering the women’s hostel.
Police have launched a manhunt to identify the assailant, the officer said.
The woman was allegedly gang-raped and attacked with acid by two men in 2008 over a property dispute, and subsequently attacked twice more by the same men, in 2012 and 2013, who wanted to force her to withdraw the criminal cases against them.
Most recently, she was allegedly forced her to drink acid while she was travelling on a train with one of her daughters in March.
The two men are facing trials over the attacks, but they were released on bail in April.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sustained burn injuries to her face and shoulder and is now being treated in hospital.
In India about 300 acid attacks were reported in the country during 2015, according to official figures. Experts said, however, that this represented the tip of the iceberg.
In 2013 India brought in stringent laws to deal with acid attacks, following public outcry over the plight of hundreds of survivors coping with lifelong scars and even social stigma. The country’s top court banned the sale of acid to the public in that year to curb attacks. But assaults have largely continued unabated.
Most attacks are carried out by men taking revenge for spurned marriage proposals, or are linked to property disputes.
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